Editors Note

Welcome to this issue. This week was very interesting. The old Manager Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier left more then a year ago, this week we've got a new one. His Name is Jos Poortvliet from the Netherlands. If you would like to have a first impression, just visit his Blog.
We are looking forward to work with Jos from 1 August on. The Editors Team wishes Jos all the best :-)

We hope that you will enjoy reading.

Announcements

"We’re proud to announce today that Jos Poortvliet will join the openSUSE project and Novell as openSUSE Community Manager starting on August 1. With Jos we’ve found a leader with excellent community building experience combined with a very welcoming nature, many fresh, promising ideas and a strong drive to grow the openSUSE Project. Jos holds a degree in Organisational Psychology from the University of Utrecht and has gained valuable experience in several professional roles ranging from Project Manager at KPN to Service Level Manager at Royal Bank of Scotland. Last but not least, Jos is a leading member of the KDE Marketing Team and has helped Akademy and the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit attract a vibrant and collaborative audience. (...)"

"We're proud to announce that SUSE Gallery is now available to all Studio users! That's right, it's finally out of beta and you no longer need to opt-in to access it.

SUSE Gallery now has its own domain at susegallery.com. This will be the destination site for users who want to find an existing appliance that they can download and use immediately. It is tightly integrated with SUSE Studio, so you can still easily customize the appliances if you want to do so."

"openSUSE just announced that I will be joining them. Yay, I'll be part of the masses of Free Software contributors who are doing what they love to do, full time, supported by a paycheck!

The job

Novell has hired me as the new openSUSE community manager. I've got some big shoes to fill, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier did a great job. I've been diving into openSUSE (way too much to grasp in a short time...) and I've read several comments from people who miss him. I'm no Zonker - different people, different ideas & habits. However, I can tell you I greatly look forward to the work and I'll put all my love and energy into it ;-)"

Team Reports

Boosters Team

"It's been some time since I started working on openSUSE pastebin clone with Bento theme. I had some other duties so it took some time to find some final resting place for that. Some of you asked me for a better URL. I finally found it and since today SUSE Paste is running again on new address and it is ready to serve you face-wink.png I also wrote a simple script to make it easier to use it. So you can start using it, promoting openSUSE and if you encounter any problems, don't hesitate to report them. If you are interested in details behind this paste, continue reading, otherwise start pasting face-wink.png "

Build Service Statistics

openFATE Team

"As openoffice is the choice for most users and the only option with regards to more advanced features, core functionality needed in an office environment is still missing. Like addressbooks being available across applications to be used in e.g. mail merge."

"It would be very useful if the installation summary feature of Yast2 package manager would include the overall size of all the files that you are about to download when you do an update. I've been missing a feature like this recently, and the provided information would be useful."

"I would like to see Change logs and File lists for all packages not just the ones installed.This would make it easier to see changes between package updates. I frequently see updated packages with Zypper and have no idea what has been changed until I have installed them."

"Bluetooth has always been a weak link in KDE. Bluedevil has been announced, and should be tested, and included in 11.4. We can have native KDE bluetooth that works similar to gnome bluetooth, or blueman. My limited testing includes 2 phones, keyboard/mouse, and headphones. None of these devices would connect with kdebluetooth. All of them setup and connected flawlessly with bluedevil KCM module. The only problem so far is not being able to see files in dolphin when trying to browse phone files. http://www.afiestas.org/bluedevil-the-new-kde-bluetooth-stack-is-here/ "

Kernel Review

"Measures to optimise the power management code and fully support the Turbo Core function of recent AMD six-core processors increase the data throughput and processing speed of Linux 2.6.35. Further kernel additions include tracing interfaces for KVM, another kernel configuration program, and functions for de-fragmenting the working memory."

"Expanded support for USB 3.0, a new subsystem for the use of infra-red remote controls, and an EDAC driver for Nehalem processors are just a few of the many new or improved drivers.

In the release email on the sixth beta version of Linux 2.6.35, Torvalds indicated that it could be the last beta for this kernel version, so it's probable that the final of 2.6.35 will be released in the next few days. "

Tips and Tricks

For Desktop Users

"This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 11.3 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge."

For Developers and Programmers

"I have an on-going project, to code the Collatz sequence in as many languages as I can. So far, I've implemented it in C (integer and floating-point), assembly (x86, x86_64, and SPARC32), Java, BASIC in Open Office.org, Tcl, Lisp, Ada, Python, and Bash. Naturally, the fastest method is assembly, which can by-pass all the cautions of the other, translated languages. (...)"

"I thought I should let anyone that cares know what the latest status of my work is. What work? Getting MeeGo on openSUSE, of course! I'm calling it Smeegol – SUSE MeeGo Linux, and this just happens to be the Teal Goblin – Teal is the code name for 11.3 ;-)

Well I'm not quite there yet (unfortunately) :-( I have one major issue which is the Network Panel not displaying properly, and as such is difficult to use. I also have a smaller issue with the web panel, but that is more of an annoyance rather than a blocker."

"A few weeks ago, I noted that the openSUSE Community Project was working on a new strategy. The purpose of the discussion is essentially to answer the question “Why openSUSE?”

I have to admit that, while I have a knee-jerk positive response to any democratic process that ends in a vote on something important, I wasn’t completely certain what the point of this exercise was. Today I’ve got a clue: (...)"

"The openSUSE project announced today that Jos Poortvliet is joining the project as the new Community Manager! Jos' has recently worked on the KDE Marketing team and has a degree in Organisational Psychology from the University of Utrecht. While we're all really happy to have Jos on board, I'm a little concerned that we might all be part of a thesis paper in the future; either way, welcome aboard Jos!

Jos has some pretty big clown-sized shoes to fill left by former Community Manager and all around nice guy, Joe "Zonker" Brockenmeier who acted as Community Manager for the project from early 2008 until February of this year."

"There has been some speculation on the forums about what the next release of openSUSE is going to be called, it seems pretty definite now that it will be 11.4 (instead of a jump to 12).

openSUSE Program Manager, Andreas Jaeger announced on the "opensuse-factory" mailing list that the bug tracker has been updated to contain a project for the next release of openSUSE, scheduled to ship in March 2011."

On the Web

Announcements

"Fame and a modest fortune await! We're looking for inventive minds to build the most innovative software appliances. Publish your unique appliance to the new SUSE® Gallery™ and enter into a contest to win $10,000!"

Call for participation

"As we prepare for LinuxCon (just two short weeks away), we're inviting you to share what you think are the most important milestones to have taken place since last year's LinuxCon (Sept 2009) as well as what are some of your favorite projects.

By taking this brief poll (just 6 questions), you can have your voice heard and help promote your favorite features, tools and projects or companies. Please vote as many times as you like and share the poll with your followers and fans. "

Reports

"OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 was released on June 4 and a new master workspace was branched off for the upcoming 3.3 on June 5. The code in this branch will be stabilized and later become the product release that will find its way onto your desktops."

"A federal appeals court has just ruled that breaking through a digital security system to access software doesn't trigger the "anti-circumvention" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Any other interpretation of the DMCA, declared the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would permit infringement liability for tapping into a work simply to "view it or to use it within the purview of 'fair use' permitted under the Copyright Act." (...)"

"The developers behind the GNOME project have gathered in the Netherlands this week for the annual GUADEC conference. During a meeting that took place at the event, the GNOME release team made the difficult decision to delay the launch of GNOME 3, the next major version of the popular open source desktop environment.

The new version has been deemed unready for mass consumption and will need another round of refinements before it can achieve the level of maturity and robustness that is expected by the software's users. Although the news will likely disappoint some enthusiasts, it is consistent with the GNOME development community's conservative approach to release management and strong emphasis on predictability."

"NCR announced two compact POS (point of sale) devices that run SUSE Linux for Point of Service, as well as a number of Windows operating systems. The RealPOS 40 and RealPOS 60 use Intel Atom and Celeron processors, respectively, offer enhanced energy efficiency, and provide both four powered serial ports and up to eight powered USB ports, the company says."

Reviews and Essays

"The recent series of OpenSUSE releases seems to have been oscillating between trying to deliver the finest up-to-date apps and providing the easiest, most intuitive experience for users. History tells us that it's hard to do both simultaneously, but this release might just have managed to pull it off. We reckon it's worth 9 out of 10 - but why?

SUSE has always been a KDE kind of distro, but although they've stuck with it for the 4.x series, there's certainly a lot more Gnome love in the OpenSUSE camp these days. That doesn't extend to leaving it alone of course. The SUSE version of Gnome still uses a bottom panel and the 'slab' launcher, which makes it mimic KDE 4.x somewhat, but clearly at least an equal amount of effort has been made to make it not feel like a second-choice option. "

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